Summer in Seattle

I decided to take a little trip. Well, it wasn’t as spontaneous as the phrasing suggests – it was quite calculated. Nevertheless, I’ve taken a quick haitus from my job after a very faithful run during this last school year.

I just arrived back in Seattle via an Amtrak train ride from Vancouver. Here’s the whole picture: Went to Seattle ’cause I’ve never seen the Pacific NW region of our country. I thought I’d do a little sightseeing while in Seattle, so I booked the Amtrak to go up to Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.

Vancouver was beautiful! Mountains and water were everywhere. There were seaplanes everywhere, too! The colors were vivid blue and green, and different from my daily routine, I actually spent some time out in nature – I took a tour that took me across a very high-up rope bridge and then up to a mountain called Grouse Mountain.

Back in Seattle now, I’m actually staying in a hostel. Which isn’t the greatest situation for lack of privacy, but it’s pretty cheap – about $25/night! A hostel is something you might take advantage of when you’re in college and get a chance to study abroad. Hostels are like a no-frills version of a hotel (even when you thought a hotel didn’t have much frill). Basically, when you stay at a hostel, you pay for a bed and that’s it. Most times, a room in a hostel has at least one other bed, and usually more, and if you’re travelling alone, you’d definitely share that room with other people you don’t know. The plus side though, is that the other people are usually a lot like you: exploring a new place, don’t know people around, looking for advice and tips on the new place, and of course a little (or a lot) adventurous.

I stayed in lots of hostels when I studied abroad during college. I lived in Salzburg, Austria for 6 months during my Junior year of college. Study Abroad programs allow students to take classes and earn credit that they need to have at another school in another country. They get to learn what it’s like to live in that country, learn about the people, the culture, the area. It’s definitely an opportunity everyone should look into – whether they think they can afford it or not. There are lots of resources out there to make such opportunities a reality, and there are a lot of different programs to fit everyone’s needs. There are short trips and long trips – for example, I went to Paris for 8 days – a short-term study abroad program, Salzburg for 6 months, and there are other programs that go for a whole year.

It was travelling to Paris during my sophomore year that really sparked my love for travel. Up until then, I had only been on a plane one other time in my life, and I’d definitely never left the country. I thought it was going to be pretty rough trying to fit in somewhere that I didn’t understand the language. But I found that it was really cool! After 8 days in Paris, I felt I was finally beginning to get the hang of how some stuff worked there, but then the trip was over. This left me wanting to learn more, and travel some place for a longer period of time – I couldn’t wait to plan my next trip somewhere else and figure out a whole new place!

Well, in a few minutes, I’m about to head out a comedy show. That’s another cool thing about hostels – they plan social events for the people staying there. I’ve already met three German guys, an Australian couple, and a guy from Cincinnati. I’m looking forward to meetin new people and having some good laughs, hopefully!

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